Admiral Sir Henry Digby GCB (20 January 1770 – 19 August 1842) was a senior British naval officer, who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy.

Born into a long-established naval family, his uncle was the famous Admiral Robert Digby, Henry went to sea at the end of the American Revolutionary War aged fourteen.

Promoted to commander in August 1795 and captain in December 1796, Digby established a reputation as an aggressive prize taker, capturing 57 ships in less than twenty months.

After a six-week break, on 16 April he was entered into the books of HMY Royal Charlotte until the end of the year when he finally went to sea aboard the 50-gun HMS Europa and sailed for the West Indies.

[1] Digby's father died in November 1788 and he returned home but by December he was aboard the sloop Racehorse trying to stop the smuggling trade in the North Sea.

[2][4] Returning from the West Indies in September 1791, Digby spent a year and eight months in England dealing with family affairs, following the death of his mother.

[2] Digby took a small boat close into the blazing ship to rescue men struggling in the water despite the risk of instant annihilation should the ammunition store catch alight, as happened later that day.

[2] On 16 December 1796 he made Post Captain and was appointed to the 6th rate, 28 gun, Aurora, escorting convoys in the waters around Portugal and Spain and damaging the enemy's commercial interests wherever possible.

[2][5] In these first two commands, Digby took 57 enemy vessels before transferring to HMS Leviathan under Commodore John Duckworth and was present at the capture of Minorca in November 1798.

Patrolling the waters in and around Portugal and the Azores, Digby captured dozens of small merchant ships and a 28 gun French privateer, Courageux.

[6] Digby claimed that a dream caused him to change course and as a result, at dawn on 16 October 1799, the Alcmene encountered two British frigates.

[10] The Africa was also a poor sailer, and on the morning of the battle, as a result of bad weather and a missed signal during the night, Digby found his ship far off station to the north and was thus very isolated.

[11] Digby indignantly received the order and then deliberately misinterpreted it as an instruction to close with the British fleet to the south, engaging each in turn with port broadsides before reaching the melee surrounding the enormous Spanish flagship, the 130 gun Santissima Trinidad.

[11] Sailing south from the battle, Africa encountered the Intrépide and fought her continuously for 40 minutes until HMS Orion arrived and the French ship surrendered as she was outnumbered.

Digby's inscription inside read ... this book was shivered in this manner by a whole shot, knocking to pieces the bookcase ... off Cape Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 ... on board the 'Africa' (64 guns).

At the time of his death he was a full admiral of the Blue [d] and had become a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath[e] Henry's great-great-granddaughter was the 20th-century socialite and diplomat Pamela Harriman, who grew up on the family estate in Dorset.